Must Read Monday- My Favorite Read Alouds, Part 2

A few weeks ago, I linked up with Amanda from Teaching Maddeness to share my favorite "quick" read aloud. You can read about that favorite by clicking here. I'm linking up with Amanda once again to share more of my favorites, as promised.

I hope you don't mind that I'm focusing on my favorite read alouds. Please know that I use plenty of mentor texts and texts that tie into Social Studies and Science, but as I've said before, sometimes I just like to read to my students for the sake of simply enjoying a book together. They are 7/8, they should get to read to hear me read for fun! The books I share with my students during my read aloud time are not high level chapter books. Quite frankly, I can't commit to lengthy chapter books because (gasp) sometimes a few days go by before I can squeeze in a read aloud. For this reason, I have a stash of high interest books that can be read fairly quickly.

With that said, aside from the Mercy Watson series, I love to read the Skippyjon Jones books to my students!

The Snow What title shown above will be available in October of this year.

Skippyjon Jones is just about the cutest Siamese cat you'll ever meet! He is an imaginative trouble maker who thinks that he is a chihuahua. Whenever he finds himself in time out (which is often), he wanders into his closet and goes on an adventure with his imaginary chihuahua friends, all the while speaking in his very best Spanish accent. He is silly, brave, lovable, and downright funny.

I love getting into character as I read with my best Spanish accent (it probably would not impress my father in law, but I do give it my best), and the kids love that I use so much expression as I read. I love that this series can be used to model expression as you read. Best of all, the kids love it. There are also lots of opportunities to model using context clues to derive meaning.

The books are action packed, exciting, and laugh out loud funny. Once I start reading the series to the kids, I always see them return from the Library with their own copies (and you know I love that). Finally, you can read one whole book in 10-15 minutes! There have been a few times where I have had to split the reading into two parts, and it was no biggie.

You can find all the books on Amazon, and sometimes, Scholastic has mini bundles available in the monthly book orders.